Two singer-actresses evoke key life experiences with traditional options of role and gender that affect a woman’s self-understanding. The first act deals with girlhood and love, the second turns to the emotional implications of married life and motherhood. In the course of these developments the sudden, unexpected appearances of fairy tale figures offers surprising insights. In dialogues mixed with 20th century songs, “Pretty Women” gives a theatrical voice to the everyday life of women in our times.

Founded in 2012 by husband and wife team Cary & Martina Rick Les Arts Scéniques, a non-profit organization, has pursued the following goals:
- Create a professional ensemble and perform own productions.
- Train and promote new talents.
- Offer acting courses for interested amateurs of all ages.

Up until now Les Arts Scéniques has realized and performed two productions on tour and is currently preparing three new ones. Numerous courses have been held and the professional training program is going to begin its third year in 2018. A new important addition is our children’s company Les Arts Scéniques Junior.

Having started out in rented rehearsal rooms at various places in Basel, Les Arts Scéniques moved to a first small space of its own at Pfirtergasse 1 in 2013. Craving more room and a better location we were able to move to our current location at Hochstrasse 80 not far from the central train station in Basel where we both teach and rehearse.

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About Pretty Women

In this new production of Les Arts Scéniques two singer-actresses evoke key life experiences with traditional options of role and gender that affect a woman’s self-understanding. The first act deals with girlhood and love. The second act turns to the emotional implications of married life and motherhood. In the course of these developments the sudden, unexpected appearance of a fairy tale figure such as Cinderella or Red Riding Hood offers a surprising and illuminating insight. In dialogues interspersed with 20th century theater songs by now legendary composers of musicals that are alternately contemplative, ironic, dramatic and witty, “Pretty Women” gives a theatrical voice to the everyday life of women in our times.

The Music

The seventeen theatre songs performed in the show by renowned composers and lyricists whose collected works throughout the 20th century contributed to the evolution of the musical as a timely and nowadays internationally popular theatrical genre. The selection of songs by Jerome Kern, Richard Rodgers, Irving berlin, Oscar Hammerstein II, John Kander & Fred Ebb and Stephen Sondheim documents essential stages in the history of the musical from 1916 (Harry Tierney and Joseph McCarthy) till 2005 (Benj Pasek and Justin Paul). Moreover, almost all the musical monologues or dialogues chosen for the production were themselves written specifically for female characters in a variety of everyday situations.

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Martina Rick

Performer

Martina Rick was born in Basel. Already as a ten-year-old she writes, directs and performs her own plays, learns to play several instruments and performs as a clown and an acrobat in a children’s circus. Following the Matura she attends the Jazz School in Basel for a semester, takes voice lessons from Kathleen Michaels, continues singing studies in San Francisco and trains as a musical theater performer at the Swiss Musical Academy in Bern. 2017 she graduates as an Authorised CVT Teacher from the Complete Vocal Institute in Copenhagen. Since 2014 Martina teaches solo voice at her own studio, Songwork. In 2012 she founds Les Arts Scéniques with her husband, Cary Rick in order to produce their own plays, teach acting to people of all age groups and encourage theatrical talents. She acts in their first production - “Relatively Speaking” - and works as a producer for the second one, “Two Times Chekhov”. Martina’s especially interested in the musical in its capacity to integrate different performing skills.

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Madeline Del Real

Performer

Born in California Madeline Del Real moves with her family to Switzerland at an early age. She studies theater and film in London and New York where she finishes her training in 2009 at the American Music and Dramatic Academy. Her career as an actress includes performances in a variety of plays, from classical plays such as Shakespeare to the works of modern authors, as well as original works or improvised pieces. In 2012 she becomes a member of Annie Ward’s Complete Theatre Company und takes part in master classes at the Pearl Theatre Conservatory, the London Academy of Theatre and Music and the Guilford School of Acting. Madeline has a particular interest in working with artist of other disciplines. In 2014 she founds the Ensemble Vox Fabulae with three international artists. They develop pieces that combine contemporary music and theater. In 2014/2015 the ensemble tours its program in Basel and Dornach. Apart from her own projects, Madeline works as a speaker and acts in various ensembles.

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Brigitte Subkov

Piano

Brigitte Subkov was born in St. Petersburg and moves to Germany in 1995. At the age of 13 she wins the national German competetion, „Jugend musiziert“. Numerous successses in competitions and master classes bring her to London where she receives a bachelor’s degree in music at the Royal College of Music. While studying under Prof. Andrew Zolinsky and Prof. Nigel Clayton she plays for well-known artists such as Stephen Hough and Vanessa Latarche. In 2013 she begins working on scholarship with Swiss Prof. Adrian Oetiker at the Hochschule für Musik in Basel. She plays for prominent pianists such as Pavaali Jumpanen, Ulrich Koella und Homero Francesch and enthuses listeners playing Beethoven, Chopin and Liszt in her own solo concerts. Brigitte gives master classes for young pianists. In 2015 she returns to the Royal College of Music to pursue a Master In Performance degree with an emphasis on contemporary music. She now performs as an international soloist and chamber musician. The Kathleen Trust in London supports Brigitte’s work.

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Cary Rick

Director

Cary Rick takes his first steps on a professional stage at the age of fifteen at Drury Lane Theater in his hometown of Chicago. At nineteen he establishes a community theater group in the low-income suburb of South Chicago where he teaches acting to children, teenagers and adults, develops a theater ensemble and directs their plays. Moving to Europe at twenty-one he begins dance training first at Vienna’s Municipal Academy of Music and the Performing Arts, and later with Mary Wigman at her studio in West Berlin. Rick is then taken on as an apprentice by renowned dance soloist, Dore Hoyer. In Berlin he stages the group movement scenes for director, Erwin Piscator at the Freie Volksbühne. Following the debut of his own solo dance performance in Helsinki, he tours his one-man-show throughout Finland under the auspices of the Goethe Institute, directs movement for several productions at Helsinki’s Municipal Theater, where he simultaneously trains the actors and the dance ensemble, and assists director Eugen Terttula in several productions. He also teaches directing at Helsinki’s Swedish Theater School.

After joining Marcel Marceau onstage for 50 performances in Paris at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées Rick debuts his own critically acclaimed one-man-show in Paris at the Carré Thorigny Theater and takes it on tour afterwards throughout France. His important critical success at the International Theater Festival in Avignon, brings him invitations to perform his one man show on tour throughout Europe.

Rick has taught and lectured as artist-in-residence in the theater and dance divisions of the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, the dance and drama departments of universities in Munich and Frankfurt, and has been a visiting professor at the University of Giessen’s division of applied theater sciences. Cary Rick terminates his performing career after a guest performance for the Goethe Institute 1983 in Rome on account of a spine injury and works more and more as a dance therapist.

At the end of the ‘80’s Cary Rick is made the first chairman of the association for dance therapy in Austria, and in 1994 founds the Institute for Movement Analysis in Switzerland for training and research. His many writings in the area of movement therapy as well as dance have appeared in several languages. Cary Rick is authorized as a Board-Certified Dance/Movement Therapist (BC-DMT) of the American Dance/Movement Therapy Association (ADTA). During a teaching stint at the Swiss Musical Academy in Bern, Cary Rick meets his future wife, Martina. Together they found Les Arts Scéniques.